Wednesday, March 02, 2011

I'll hopefully have a chance to post some more photos (of the actual shearing!) and details from Sheep Shearing Day 2011 soon. In the meantime, there are lots of pictures and answers to sheep shearing questions in last year's sheep shearing post. Most of the whole experience is the same from year to year—except for the beagle puppy of course.

11 comments:

I'm probably being overly concerned here, and I don't mean to freak you out, but please be careful with the barn licking dog. We had a goat that loved to lick our barn walls. He got sick and passed away. Months later, I bought a lead testing kit to see if we needed to be concerned with our interior walls in our old house. Then I thought to test that barn wall - yup, lead paint. Maybe the goat passed away from natural causes, but I always wonder if he was (inadvertently) poisoned.

Hi Kate,Thanks for your concern - and I'm sorry to hear about your goat. Not to worry - the wood siding in our new sheep barn is local rough cut lumber bought from a nearby Amish sawmill, and it's not painted or treated in any way.

We did use treated posts for the interior supports - only because we couldn't find them untreated - and just to be on the safe side for everybody, Joe has gone to the trouble of completely covering each post with more local rough cut boards. But I still wish Bear would quit all that licking! :)

Bert! In the middle of everything-- as only a beagle can be! He is so cute and so funny. He brings back fond memories of a goofy beagle we had for 14 years. They are characters, for sure. The "big dogs" are funny with Bert...who could probably be a pest sometimes. Thanks for sharing these photos--made me smile!

We used to have a GSD/rottie/collie mix who was the spitting image of Bear (just maybe a little bigger) and he *loved* to lick random things. The floor inside the house was one favorite. And carpet. I never could figure it out and it used to seem odd/annoying to us as well. He lived to be 14 - not bad for a 70 pound dog we got from the pound when he was 5.

I think some dogs are just lickers by nature. I hope the sheep stay warm enough without their wooly coats :) I know the wool you get isn't great for spinning b/c these are meat sheep but I forgot - what do you do with it? It looks like it makes a good dog bed for Bert :)

Hi! I really enjoy your writing and this blog. I have farmed a little bit and my bro now has the family farm. He has a small flock of sheep and some mother cows. I was wondering if you keep the wool in the plastic bags (I didn't think that was a good idea) and where do you sell it in your area. We have a Wool Exchange here in Utah that buys most of everyone's wool even the small farm's. (Even the guys who only have a couple of weeder sheep can sell there) Shearing is a couple of weeks away in this country, still pretty cold and wet(snowy). Thanks for sharing.

December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.

I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!